The Mind Of OverlordTomala
Hobbies

Playing With Vinyl In Audacity

The project of choice this evening was some video work, as per usual. What was not per usual though was that I had to do some special audio work for it. There’s a scene in an upcoming video that takes place in Black and White, and I wanted the audio to match the old look I’m going for – like an old time radio effect. For the most part I used what already came with Audacity, but to make it a little extra I found this free VST plugin by iZotope called “Vinyl” that allows you to add vinyl effects, and has presets for different eras going all the way back to the 1930’s. It’s a pretty cool find! Unfortunately it doesn’t have Linux support, only Mac and Windoze…

I’ll have to see if I can get something to happen using Wine, another time perhaps, when I have time for that kind of science. 😀

Gaming

Reaching The End Of Quake II

Another game I can check off of my To Finish List, at least in Multiplayer. We finished Quake II tonight! Next time we play it’ll be the additional expansion packs, and then beyond that we’ll start playing with mods.

I like finding secrets like these in older games. They are literally time capsules that tell a story in their own way. Seeing developers from a whole other era, frozen in this point in time all its own. There’s just something magical about it. 🙂

All in an Overlord's day / Blogospheric Naval Gazing

The Struggle Is Real

The good news is that our new TV arrived today! The bad news is that it arrived with a cracked screen… I’m already having fun trying to get a prepaid shipping label for it. They claimed to have sent one, but the label they provided says I need to use my own postage. What’s even stranger was that I thought I bought it through Amazon, it even says Amazon ships it right on the store page, but when I go through my purchase history it was sent by a third party that I have to resolve my return through.

I already sent them an email requesting another shipping label. Hopefully things go smoothly. For some reason I have this feeling that things are going to get annoying.

Gaming

You Can Do This, Madeline

Made it to Chapter 2 in Celeste tonight! I put the game down quite awhile ago after struggling with the climb.

Celeste is about a girl named Madeline (or whatever you want to name her in the beginning) who has big ambitions to climb Mt. Celeste. There isn’t much to the controls, but the climb itself takes many deaths and skill to overcome if you’re a n00b like me.

Along your journey you bump into, yourself? You have an inner demon that doesn’t think you have what it takes to climb this mountain, and I left off trying to literally run away from myself. At this point it felt right to take a break. While the controls themselves are simple, you have to use impeccable timing in order to get to your target to not die. I might try again later on my Steam Deck, right now I need to give my fingers a break.

Gaming

Kicked Dracula’s Ass… Again

This Time As Richter Belmont…

I wasn’t planning on beating any games today… but the nice thing about retro games and save states is being able to pick up where you left off, instead of dying and having to rely on passwords and throwing your controller across the room. Despite it all I still had a bit of fun… I think playing the first one gave me enough practice to trudge onward through Dracula X. I probably would have liked it better if they included everything from the PC Engine version “Castlevania: Rondo of Blood”. Maybe Konami will officially release it on all platforms someday, the boss fights look far more superior in that version. That, and you could play at least one other character.

Gaming

Sunday Rainy Weekend Entertainment

It’s been another one of those rainy weekends. I made a good breakfast and mostly fondled my Steam Deck under some warm covers. Decided to take a break from the second Alice game and go further back in time to the SNES era with Castlevania Advance Collection. Aside from the three GBA era titles that are included, they also threw in Castlevania Dracula X. It plays much like the original Castlevania: Start at Point A, go to Point B, kill annoying boss, etc, etc. I took a break after making it to the third area in the game, needed to charge the Steam Deck. I could have continued playing it on Desktop, but this game seems more appropriate on Deck for some reason. In fact, I’ve been mainly doing my gaming on the Steam Deck, at least last week.

I guess I was just in a Castlevania/Metroidvania like mood today, until…

Yutram and I decided to try out Bokura. It’s a two player puzzle game that you can play in local or online co-op. You and your friend decide to go exploring up in the mountains, then things get pretty trippy. Each player sees a completely different environment, and sometimes one person has to move something from their perspective so that the other one can make it across. I kinda wish both of us were recording, just to add more perspective. It was a really interesting game, with more for us to look forward to!